The winter season is creeping to an end and spring is just around the corner. A lot has gone down for the ThirtyTwo and etnies team riders. Some are on the inevitable injured list, while others are laughing all the way to the bank with their winnings from various contests.
Binding drama!

Wille Yli-Luoma made it back to the States hassle-free from customs. He’s excited to move into his new apartment in downtown Portland where he’ll be for the next year or so. He’s on his way up to Tahoe to pick up his snowmobile and then drive back to Portland. He’ll be concentrating on filming with Mack Dawg and Volcom for the next several weeks and plans to attend a few promotional trips with his sponsors and maybe even head to Japan?

Markku Koski flew home to get his shoulder checked out. Unfortunately, he tore the ligaments, which will take a few weeks to heal. He said he’d go through some physical therapy for now and wait until the season is over to go under the knife. Markku’s up in spirits and will continue to ride. In fact, he’ll be attending the X-box Jam in Europe this week along with international riders Hampus Mossesson, Aleksi Vanninen, Joni Makinen and Danny Wheeler.

John Jackson is on the inevitable injured list for the next couple of weeks, unfortunately. He recently got his knee checked out and from the looks of it; he’ll be taking it easy for the next couple of weeks. Hang in there John, we got your back.

Benji and friends.

Tyler Lepore just got back from a two-and-a-half-week binge of eating soba noodles and soaking up the Japanese culture. Tyler-san said he had a blast in Tokyo and got some good powder in the North Island of Hokkaido filming for the Oakley project (title still unknown). He’ll be hanging in Vancouver for the next couple of days catching up on some of his bills and then heading out to keep filming and shooting photos. Tyler will be making his way to Quebec to compete in the third annual Empire Shakedown, scheduled for March 26, 2005.

Benji Ritchie drove out to Tahoe right after the ThirtyTwo boot camp to film with the White Out crew in the backcountry. He’s been waking up at the crack of dawn to get the goods. Benji will also make his way back to Whistler sometime later this week and then head back to his hometown to compete in the Shakedown.

Chad's about to drop in and beat everyone's ass.

B team rider Eric Jackson has been filming non-stop with Standard Films in the backcountry of Tahoe. Check out some of the photos from his last venture in the backcountry, especially the one where E-Jack literally gets eject-ed out of both of his bindings jumping a 50-foot road gap. Luckily he didn’t get hurt but a lot of laughter was shared after that moment. He’ll continue to film and shoot photos everyday with Standard films until the US Open from March 17-20.

ThirtyTwo and etnies flow rider Chad Otterstrom slaughtered the Gravity Games at Copper Mountain. Chad was on point all day long and during the 2-hour jam session. His runs were consistent and fluid, stomping tricks like a backside 900 to cab 7’s, backside 7, frontside 5, huge Ollie to lipslide over the battleship rail, 180 on to 180 out of the ledge and to finish it off cab boardslide to 270 out. He scored a 92.0, which placed him in the “Money” spot the entire day. Immediately after the slopestyle event, Chad brought out his bag of tricks at the Rail Jam in Frisco that night. He stomped a variety of tricks on both rails rewarding him yet another win not to mention a bonus round for best trick ($1,000). Chad’s 10-hour workday awarded him a nice $26,000. That’s $2,600 an hour. Not bad for having fun and enjoying what he loves to do. Congratulations Chad! We may just have to put you back on the team.

Chad won all day long.

Lot’s more to come so keep checking back and here’s a little bit of what else is going on for the rest of the month. See you in the spring: